Physical references for providing supplemental real estate information

ABSTRACT

A supplemental information system is described herein that uses physical references placed throughout a property to provide extended information about the property to a potential buyer or other interested party. A seller or seller&#39;s agent describes various items of the property in electronic form. The seller associates each item description with a physical reference, such as a QR code. Next, the seller prints out and affixes the physical reference to the item of interest. Potential buyers or others interested in the property can use a smartphone or similar device with a physical reference reading application to read the physical reference and retrieve the supplemental information. The reference may also change behavior over time or provide different information based on the requesting user. Thus, the system makes it easy for real estate sellers and others to connect extended electronic information with physical real estate items.

PRIORITY CLAIM

The present application claims priority from U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/710,606, filed Oct. 5, 2012, which is incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

When describing real estate, the seller of a property may wish tohighlight facts about particular locations or items in the home. Forinstance, the fireplace may be operable, original to the classic home,and the fireplace surround may be made from locally produced Heath brandart tile. As another example, a window may have a terrific ocean view onclear days, but the view may be obscured on cloudy days or at night.

Sellers or seller's agents can provide comprehensive descriptions of allof the amenities of a home in listing (e.g., in the multiple listingservice (MLS)). Further, they often attach those descriptions directlyto the items in question (e.g., a seller could affix a note to thefireplace surround saying “original Heath tiles”). However, thesedescriptions are often only textual in nature, and do not providepotential buyers with a complete understanding of the feature beinghighlighted. Potential buyers may even be confused about what the notesmean or are referring to.

When the agent for the property describes the property electronically(e.g. in the multiple listing service (MLS)), it may be difficult toinclude all these details. Further, even if the details are alldescribed exhaustively, it may be difficult for potential buyers to wadethrough all that data and find the tidbits that are relevant toparticular places or items in the home. When a potential buyer isphysically viewing the home, it can be difficult for the buyer to accessthe detailed information, or even be aware that it exists. A buyer maybe looking at the fireplace surround, and thinking, “I wonder if that'sHeath tile”?

A physical reference is a reference in the physical world to extendedelectronic information. One popular current example is a quick response(QR) code, which much like a bar code can be placed on virtuallyanything and scanned with a smartphone or more portable computing deviceto access further information stored online. The general idea of usingQR Codes is to encode and make available information about the physicalitem that the code is attached to. Various types of physical referencesexists, but have not been effectively applied to real estate and theprocess of home buying.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates components of thesupplemental information system, in one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the supplementalinformation system to tag a physical item with associated electronicinformation by creating a physical reference to the electronicinformation, in one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the supplementalinformation system to retrieve contextually relevant supplementalelectronic information related to a physical real estate item, in oneembodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example physical real estate location, such as aroom, with a feature labeled with a physical reference for whichsupplemental electronic information is available, in one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention may be operational with numerous generalpurpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the inventioninclude, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers,hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers,distributed computing environments that include any of the above systemsor devices, and the like.

Embodiments of the invention may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer and/or by computer-readable media on which suchinstructions or modules can be stored. Generally, program modulesinclude routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc.that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotecomputer storage media including memory storage devices.

Embodiments of the invention may include or be implemented in a varietyof computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any availablemedia that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile andnonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example,and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computerstorage media and communication media. Computer storage media includevolatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implementedin any method or technology for storage of information such as computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can accessed by computer. Communication media typicallyembodies computer readable instructions, data structures, programmodules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier waveor other transport mechanism and includes any information deliverymedia. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one ormore of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,communication media includes wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer readable media.

According to one or more embodiments, the combination of software orcomputer-executable instructions with a computer-readable medium resultsin the creation of a machine or apparatus. Similarly, the execution ofsoftware or computer-executable instructions by a processing deviceresults in the creation of a machine or apparatus, which may bedistinguishable from the processing device, itself, according to anembodiment.

Correspondingly, it is to be understood that a computer-readable mediumis transformed by storing software or computer-executable instructionsthereon. Likewise, a processing device is transformed in the course ofexecuting software or computer-executable instructions. Additionally, itis to be understood that a first set of data input to a processingdevice during, or otherwise in association with, the execution ofsoftware or computer-executable instructions by the processing device istransformed into a second set of data as a consequence of suchexecution. This second data set may subsequently be stored, displayed,or otherwise communicated. Such transformation, alluded to in each ofthe above examples, may be a consequence of, or otherwise involve, thephysical alteration of portions of a computer-readable medium. Suchtransformation, alluded to in each of the above examples, may also be aconsequence of, or otherwise involve, the physical alteration of, forexample, the states of registers and/or counters associated with aprocessing device during execution of software or computer-executableinstructions by the processing device.

As used herein, a process that is performed “automatically” may meanthat the process is performed as a result of machine-executedinstructions and does not, other than the establishment of userpreferences, require manual effort.

A supplemental information system is described herein that uses physicalreferences placed throughout a home or other areas of a subject propertyto provide extended information about the property to a potential buyeror other interested party (e.g., a home inspector or agent). A seller orseller's agent describes various items of the property in electronicform, potentially including photos, videos, documents, or otherelectronic information. The seller associates each item description witha physical reference, such as a QR code. Next, the seller prints out andaffixes the physical reference to the item of interest. For example, aseller may describe a model of refrigerator recently purchased for thekitchen, and affix a QR code to the refrigerator that referencesdocumentation of the refrigerator's warranty, and an owner's manual forproper operation.

Potential buyers or others interested in the property can use asmartphone or similar device with a physical reference application toread the physical reference (e.g., the QR code). In response, theapplication refers the potential buyer to electronic informationpreviously stored by the seller, such as a web page, a snippet ofdescriptive text, an image, or a document. Through this process,real-world real estate items (such as a fireplace) are connected toelectronic information (such as text snippets or photographs) via acomputer-readable physical reference on the real-world item. Thereference can refer to a web site (e.g., to register for moreinformation), a document (such as a disclosure report), an image (e.g.,a floor plan or a photograph of the view from a window on a clear day),or any other electronic information about the item.

The reference may also change behavior over time. For instance, areference to a photograph of the view from a window may show a nighttimeview when dereferenced during the day, and a daytime view whendereferenced at night. The reference may change behavior based on factsabout the user, such as information stored in a user profile. Forinstance, the physical reference may allow users to inform their agentthat they have toured a home. An application on a smartphone or othermobile device may already know the identity and location of the user(e.g., through global positioning system (GPS) or cellular hardware), sothe reference may simply tell the smartphone application to inform theagent that the user is in the home. The reference may change behaviorfor any other reason that is relevant. For instance, there might be alink to disclosure documents. Before the disclosures are available,accessing the reference may display a “coming soon!” message, but afterthe disclosures are available, the same action may link to the actualdocuments.

The reference may take action (i.e., may not be read-only). For example,in a planned community, the reference might be to sign up for moreinformation on homes in the development. The reference may refer to datathat is already stored locally on the mobile device, that is storedexternal to the device (e.g., on a website), or the reference maycontain the data directly through embedded information. The referencemay refer to private or proprietary data, including MLS data. Thereference may also include commercial information about the physicalitem. For instance, a stager may stage a home for sale by including asofa. The stager may place a QR Code on the sofa. Users who access theQR Code may be presented with an opportunity to purchase the sofa orother furnishings, or to use the stager's services for selling their ownhome. Thus, the supplemental information system makes it easy for realestate sellers and others to connect extended electronic informationwith physical real estate items, and to get that information in front ofbuyers at an appropriate time when the buyer is near the items.

As discussed above, a real estate seller or other person picks physicalobjects that the person wishes to highlight for buyers or others. Theperson uses an application or website (e.g., from a mobile device) tocreate QR code tags (or other physical references) for each item. Eachtag may contain some information related to the physical object. Theinformation could include one of these types or others: 1) a uniformresource locator (URL) to a web site, document, photograph, or similar,2) a short textual description of the item, or 3) a link that isinterpreted by an application on the mobile device (e.g., via adomain-specific URL, likeredfin://amenity_description?listing_id=123&amenity_id=456).

The real estate seller or other person prints out the QR codes and affixthem to or near the physical objects to which they relate. A potentialbuyer or agent uses a mobile QR code reader to read the QR code. Whenthe QR code is interpreted, the appropriate software on the mobiledevice handles the code. For example, if the code encodes an HTTP URL,the URL may be displayed in a mobile browser. If the code encodes anapplication specific link, the relevant software may interpret thatlink. If the label maps to a URL, the browser may resolve the URL, andthe server may render the page, as with any other HTTP request. Sincemost devices have limited screen sizes, the server may return veryspecific and targeted results (e.g., only the photograph in questionwith some short comments).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates components of thesupplemental information system, in one embodiment. The system 100includes an item identifying component 110, an item descriptioncomponent 120, a reference creation component 130, a reference decodingcomponent 140, a reference looking component 150, a description displaycomponent 160, and a reference behavior component 170. Each of thesecomponents is described in further detail herein.

The item identifying component 110 receives an identification of aphysical real estate item with which a user wants to associatesupplemental electronic information. The item may include any part of aproperty listing, inside or out, such as appliances, fixtures,landscaping, lighting, docks, patios, and so forth. The user may providea text description to refer to the item (e.g., a label so that the userknows which reference the item is related to later), such as“fireplace”. A software application associated with the system 100 mayalso capture other information when a user identifies an item, such as adigital photograph, a GPS location, or other information.

The item description component 120 receives electronic supplementalinformation to associate with the real estate item. The description mayinclude text, a web link, audiovisual information, documents, or anyother electronic information. The user may type the information into asoftware application, put up a website with further information, uploadphotographs to a website, or provide the information via otherelectronic facility. The description is the supplemental informationthat others users may be able to see about the item upon looking up aphysical reference affixed to or near the item. The item description mayinclude conditions under which to display various information, such as adifferent description provided to unauthenticated users versus a morethorough description or additional details to provide to authenticatedusers. For example, MLS information associated with an item may be onlyfor authenticated users.

The reference creation component 130 creates a physical reference to theelectronic information by creating a physical tag that can be printedout or otherwise physically affixed to the item. The component 130 mayinclude a software application for generating QR codes or similarphysical references, and may receive an electronic reference to thesupplemental information, such as a URL that points to a website orother facility that stores the supplemental information. The URL canthen be embedded within the physical reference, such as the squares andpatterns of a QR code. The reference creation component 130 receives theelectronic reference, generates the tag, and then allows the user toprint out the tag or display it (e.g., via an electronic picture frameplaced near the item).

The reference decoding component 140 receives a physical reference froma visiting user interested in more information related to a real estateitem, and decodes the reference to extract an electronic reference tothe supplemental information. For example, a QR code reader applicationmay acquire a photo of a QR code from a smartphone's camera, and thendecode the QR code to extract any embedded information in the QR code,such as a URL or direct information (e.g., description text). Thephysical reference typically includes some level of encoding foruniformity, and so that users understand they are viewing a physicalreference with available extended information. QR codes are just onesuch physical reference, and the system may use barcodes or other typesof encoded physical reference.

The reference lookup component 150 looks up the decoded reference toaccess the supplemental information associated with the real estateitem. The lookup may include providing a URL to a web browser, invokinga domain-specific URL that launches a specified application on acomputing platform (e.g., redfin:// which launches the Redfin realestate application), retrieving local information stored on the device,or retrieving other types of information. The reference lookup component150 inspects a format of the decoded electronic reference, identifiesthe appropriate application for handling the decoded reference, andinvokes the application. The application then provides the supplementalinformation to the visiting user.

The description display component 160 displays the supplementalinformation in response to the visiting user requesting the supplementalinformation by providing the physical reference to the system. Thedescription display component 160 may display text to the user, displayformatted information (e.g., via hypertext markup language (HTML) orother structured text, play a video for the user, display an image, andso on. The description display component 160 uses an electronic deviceassociated with the visiting user to provide the user with contextuallyrelevant supplemental information related to a physical real estate itemthat the user is near.

The reference behavior component 170 optionally manages dynamic behaviorof a physical reference to provide varying supplemental information tothe visiting user. Upon receiving a request to look up a decodedreference and retrieve supplemental information, the component 170 maydetermine one or more environmental criteria surrounding the requestand/or one or more states at the time the request is made, such as anidentity of the requesting user, a location from which the request wasmade, a time of day, whether certain other conditions are met, whetherthe device making the request is known, and so forth. For example, thesystem 100 may provide an image that represents a view out of a windowor of a particular room of the house at a time of day other than thepresent time. In this way, the user can look out the window or at theroom to see the current view, and use the physical reference to see animage of the view at another time. The window may even include variousphysical references for viewing images from each hour of the day.Additionally, the system 100 may provide, based solely on adetermination made by the user's device of the location of the physicalitem and/or reference, an automatically and periodically updatedillustration or other description of the geographic location of thephysical item, such as, for example, information regarding and/ordistances to neighborhoods, schools, traffic statistics and/or otherlandmarks of interest within a predetermined distance. The component 170may also vary behavior based on the particular user making the request,such that some users receive different or more detailed information thanothers.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the supplementalinformation system to tag a physical item with associated electronicinformation by creating a physical reference to the electronicinformation, in one embodiment. Beginning in block 210, the systemreceives a selection of a physical item for which a user wants toprovide supplemental electronic information. The item may include anitem in a home for sale, such as the kitchen tile or cabinets, on theexterior of the home, such as a light fixture or brick siding, or otherfeatures of the home, such as a pool, dock, mailbox, and so forth. Anyphysical item to which the user can affix a physical reference (e.g., aprinted QR code) is an item for which the user can provide supplementalelectronic information.

Continuing in block 220, the system identifies the selected itemelectronically in the system. For example, the system may receive ashort name or identifier for the item, such as “kitchen tile”, so thatthe user later knows what a particular reference refers to. The user maytake a photograph of the item or capture other identifying informationthat can later be used to help an agent or other party know where tohang physical reference tags. For example, the system may provide a mapor floor plan with an indication of each location within a house where aphysical reference should be placed.

Continuing in block 230, the system creates a physical reference thatpoints to supplemental electronic information. The physical referencemay be a barcode, QR code, or other encoded reference that usersrecognize to provide to a reader application for the reference format.The system may create an image of the reference and allow the user toprint the reference or schedule the reference to be printed along withother references associated with the same home or other real estate. Thesystem may also store an electronic version of the created reference sothat the reference can be reprinted later if needed.

Continuing in block 240, the system receives a reference type thatindicates how the physical reference will be handled once decoded. QRcodes, as an example physical reference, can hold many types ofinformation including text descriptions, text in the form of a URL thatrefers to web or other content, small amounts of binary data (such asimages), and so forth. The reference may be of any type supported by aselected reference format. A URL is a way for a physical reference torefer to an electronic reference, which may then refer to vast amountsof useful information associated with a real estate item, as well asdecision-making logic such as varying behavior of the reference based oncertain conditions.

Continuing in block 250, the system receives the supplementalinformation to associate with the physical reference. Receiving thesupplemental information may include publishing a website or web page ofsupplemental information at a URL embedded within the physicalreference. Receiving supplemental information may also include embeddinginformation, such as a text description, directly in the physicalreference itself. The system receives whatever supplemental informationthe user wants to associate with the identified real estate item andstores the information for later retrieval when users provide thephysical reference to the system and request the associated information.

Continuing in block 260, the system produces a physical manifestation ofthe physical reference. For example, the system may print the referenceonto paper or labels that the user can affix to the identified realestate item, or the system may provide other physical embodiments of thereference (e.g., an e-ink display with the reference). The physicalreference completes the link between the electronic and physical worlds,allowing a user to associate extended electronic information with acontextually relevant physical location, such as next to an item in thephysical world. This allows users to find information about itemswithout knowing the information exists, and to do so at a relevantlocation near the physical item.

Continuing in block 270, the system stores the received referenceinformation for handling later requests to decode the physical referenceand provide the associated supplemental electronic information. Thesystem may store the reference information in a data storage facility,such as a file, database, cloud-based storage service, or otherpersistent data store. The information may be organized in one or moredata structures, and formatted for easy retrieval in response torequests. For physical references that embed URLs, the referenceinformation may be stored on a web server and associated with aparticular virtual directory or other location specified by the URL.After block 270, these steps conclude.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates processing of the supplementalinformation system to retrieve contextually relevant supplementalelectronic information related to a physical real estate item, in oneembodiment. Beginning in block 310, the system receives a physicalreference associated with a real estate item at a location where thereal estate item is located. The system may receive the reference byreceiving a camera image taken with a portable electronic computingdevice carried by a potential buyer or other user of the system. Forexample, the user may have a QR code reading software applicationinstalled on the device, and point a camera of the device at the QR codeto get further information related to an item to which the code isaffixed.

Continuing in block 320, the system decodes the received physicalreference to discover an electronic reference embedded within thephysical reference. For example, if the physical reference is a QR code,then the embedded electronic reference may include descriptive text, aURL, a local storage path, or another reference to further informationabout the item. The system decodes the reference in accordance with aformat of the physical reference. Physical references like QR codes,barcodes, and others have well known processes for extracting textual,numeric, and/or binary information from the physical reference that arewell known in the art. The system applies these processes to decode thereceived reference.

Continuing in block 330, the system determines an application to resolvethe discovered electronic reference to receive supplemental electronicinformation about the real estate item. The system determines theapplication based on the embedded electronic reference. If the referenceis text data, then the system may determine that a text readingapplication will be used to display the data. If the reference is a URLspecifying a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) domain, then the systemmay invoke a web browser to navigate to the URL and render an HTMLresponse to the user. If the reference is a domain-specific URL, thenthe system may invoke an application associated with the specifieddomain and provide the URL to the application for further processing.

Continuing in block 340, the system invokes the determined applicationand provides the electronic reference to the application. Theapplication may receive the electronic reference as a parameter (e.g.,an argument on the command line or other data passing method), and readthe electronic reference to looking and identify what supplementalinformation to display. For example, if the electronic reference is aURL and the application is a web browser, then the web browser looks upthe first part of the URL using a domain name service (DNS), connects toa web server at the returned internet protocol (IP) address, andprovides the virtual directory portion of the URL to the web server toretrieve a web page in response.

Continuing in block 350, the system sends a request to retrieve thesupplemental information from the invoked application to a data storethat contains the supplemental information. The data store may include aweb server, database, or other location where earlier providedsupplemental information was stored for retrieval by requesting users(e.g., via the process described with reference to FIG. 2). The systemthen receives a response that includes the supplemental information. Forexample, the supplemental information may be in the format of an HTMLresponse to a submitted web request.

Continuing in block 360, the system optionally determines a behavior ofthe provided electronic reference. Some electronic references mayproduce varying behavior depending on one or more criteria, such aswhich user is making the request, a time of day, or other factors. Forexample, a particular electronic reference may provide summaryinformation to the public and more detailed information to registeredusers of a real estate website.

Continuing in block 370, the system displays the received supplementalinformation to the user. The display may include formatted text, imagedata, audiovisual content, or any other form of data stored assupplemental information for the real estate item. In some cases, theinformation is read-write or interactive, such that the user can provideinformation in conjunction with requesting the supplemental information.The supplemental information may request that the user respond to asurvey or other questions about the real estate item to receive thesupplemental information. After block 370, these steps conclude.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example physical real estate location, such as aroom, with a feature labeled with a physical reference for whichsupplemental electronic information is available, in one embodiment. Aroom 410 represents any of potentially many rooms in a real estateproperty being sold by a seller. The room 410 includes a window 420 withavailable supplemental electronic information. The seller or anotherperson has affixed a piece of paper with a physical reference 430 on itthat a buyer or other interested user can scan with a reference readingapplication to display supplemental electronic information about thewindow 420. By placing the physical reference 430 in the physical spacenext to the window 420, the seller provides a contextually relevantnotice to potential buyers that more information is available.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that specific embodiments ofthe supplemental information system have been described herein forpurposes of illustration, but that various modifications may be madewithout deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appendedclaims.

1. A computer-implemented method to tag a physical item with associatedelectronic information by creating a physical reference to theelectronic information, the method comprising: receiving a selection ofa physical item for which a user wants to provide supplementalelectronic information; identifying the selected item electronically;creating a physical reference that points to supplemental electronicinformation related to the selected item; receiving a reference typethat indicates how the physical reference will be handled once decoded;receiving the supplemental information to associate with the physicalreference; producing a physical manifestation of the physical reference;and storing the received reference information for handling laterrequests to decode the physical reference and provide the associatedsupplemental electronic information, wherein the preceding steps areperformed by at least one processor.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereinreceiving the selection of the physical item comprises selecting an itemin a home for sale to which the user can affix a physical reference. 3.The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the item electronicallycomprises receiving a short name or identifier for the item with whichthe user can later distinguish which item a particular reference refersto.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the item electronicallycomprises storing information identifying a location of the item usinglocation hardware of a mobile device.
 5. The method of claim 1 whereincreating the physical reference comprises generating at least one of abar code or a quick response (QR) code.
 6. The method of claim 1 whereincreating the physical reference comprises creating an image of thereference and instructing the user to print the reference.
 7. The methodof claim 1 wherein receiving the reference type comprises receiving anindication that the physical reference decodes to a uniform resourcelocator (URL) for accessing the supplemental information related to theselected item.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving thesupplemental information comprises publishing a website or web page ofsupplemental information at a uniform resource locator (URL) embeddedwithin the physical reference.
 9. The method of claim 1 whereinreceiving the supplemental information comprises embedding informationdirectly in the physical reference itself.
 10. The method of claim 1wherein producing a physical manifestation of the physical referencecomprises printing the physical reference onto paper or labels that theuser can affix to the identified real estate item.
 11. The method ofclaim 1 wherein storing the received reference information comprisesstoring the reference information in a persistent data store accessibleby potential buyers that view the selected real estate item.
 12. Acomputer system for using physical references for providing supplementalreal estate information, the system comprising: a processor and memoryconfigured to execute software instructions embodied within thefollowing components; an item identifying component that receives anidentification of a physical real estate item with which a user wants toassociate supplemental electronic information; an item descriptioncomponent that receives electronic supplemental information to associatewith the real estate item; a reference creation component that creates aphysical reference to the electronic information by creating a physicaltag that can be printed out or otherwise physically affixed to the item;a reference decoding component that receives a physical reference from avisiting user interested in more information related to a real estateitem, and decodes the reference to extract an electronic reference tothe supplemental information; a reference lookup component that looks upthe decoded reference to access the supplemental information associatedwith the real estate item; and a description display component thatdisplays the supplemental information in response to the visiting userrequesting the supplemental information by providing the physicalreference to the system.
 13. The system of claim 12 wherein the itemidentifying component includes an identification of an item located at aproperty for sale and wherein the item identifying component capturesinformation related to the location of the item.
 14. The system of claim12 wherein the item description component receives at least one of text,a web link, audiovisual information, and documents to associate with thereal estate item.
 15. The system of claim 12 wherein the itemdescription component receives one or more conditions under which todynamically display different information related to the real estateitem.
 16. The system of claim 12 wherein the reference creationcomponent generates a uniform resource locator (URL) at which to storethe electronic information and embeds the URL within a quick response(QR) code.
 17. The system of claim 12 wherein the reference decodingcomponent includes a software application for reading physicalreferences that executes on a portable computing device associated withthe visiting user.
 18. The system of claim 12 wherein the referencelookup component inspects a format of the decoded electronic reference,identifies an appropriate application for handling the decodedreference, and invokes the application.
 19. The system of claim 12further comprising a reference behavior component that manages dynamicbehavior of a physical reference to provide varying supplementalinformation to the visiting user based on one or more conditions.
 20. Acomputer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controllinga computer system to retrieve contextually relevant supplementalelectronic information related to a physical real estate item, whereinthe instructions, upon execution, cause a processor to perform actionscomprising: receiving a physical reference associated with a real estateitem at a location where the real estate item is located; decoding thereceived physical reference to discover an electronic reference embeddedwithin the physical reference; determining an application to resolve thediscovered electronic reference to receive supplemental electronicinformation about the real estate item; invoking the determinedapplication and providing the electronic reference to the application;sending a request to retrieve the supplemental information from theinvoked application to a data store that contains the supplementalinformation; determining a behavior of the provided electronicreference; and displaying the received supplemental information to theuser.